HM Hand Made Business blending its own lotions, balms In October 2019, Heidi Maloy opened a store selling her homemade soaps, lotions and fragrances in historic downtown Payson. Just a few short months later, the COVID-19 pandemic shut her store down — nearly forever. “It was a risky move to decide to keep going,” Maloy said. “It was literally a month-to-month decision.” At a crucial point, however, she got a call from a nurse who was a fan of Maloy’s products. Nurses’ hands were drying out through the constant need to disinfect them, and Maloy’s lotion was the only product that helped. The nurse put in an order for 200 lotions so she could share them with other nurses. “And that was a moment where I was able to say, OK, one more month,” Maloy said. After being shut down for six months, Maloy reopened her brick-and-mortar location at 90 S. Main in Payson, and the business has grown ever since. During 2021, the business, called HM Hand Made, essentially doubled in sales. Inside her small historic building, Maloy and several employees create and sell a wide variety of personal care products, including skin and facial lotions, foot creams, hand creams, lip balms, bath bombs, sugar scrubs and shaving creams. They are all made using natural ingredients and recipes — including scent blends — developed by Maloy. “Literally, we make everything here by hand,” she said. Maloy wasn’t looking to start a busi-
ness when she began researching natural remedies. At first, she was simply looking for alternatives in treating her chronic migraines. She learned about essential oils and how they could be blended with lotions and balms, then began making products for herself. The batches made more than a single lip balm or bottle of lotion, however, and she began giving the extra products to family and friends. Soon, they were asking her for more, saying they were the best they’d ever used, and Maloy began developing products in earnest. She refers to herself as part baker, part chemist and part mad scientist. “The nerdy part of me would do the chemistry part and think, how can I take these butters and make them more beneficial? And the baker part of me was like, how can we make it smell good and how can we make it pretty?” she said.
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She created a website and began selling her creations online, then began selling at local boutiques. The basement of her Payson home served as her business’s location. After about five years, as her children were growing older and she was considering what was next in her life, she saw the small building for rent in downtown Payson and decided to move her business there. During the COVID shutdown, Maloy took phone orders and would drop them off at people’s homes or do curbside pickup. She also continued her online sales. After reopening her storefront in September of 2020, sales began picking up, with Christmas providing a large boost. “The December of that year, I was shocked at how much business we had,” she said. She attributes part of her business’s growth to customer’s growing desire to buy local and support local businesses, especially as they saw them closing during the pandemic. However, her products keep people coming back. Whether they’re looking for a treatment for eczema, dry skin or acne or simply looking to pamper themselves or find a gift for someone else, she has something for them. “One of my favorite things is when I can really, really help people,” she said. HM Hand Made is located at 90 S. Main, Payson, or online at heidimaloy. com.
